Help me out here... GSDs

[Laurelin]

Btw, our shepherd mix was 75 lbs at his prime. It's not uncommon for us to get massive GSDs in the shelter. I think a lot of BYB shepherds are way oversized.

[xpaeanx]

Originally Posted by release the hounds

From someone that loves GSD's, I can tell you what your friend hasn't researched very well, nor knows as much as she thinks she might.

yeah, that's pretty much my thoughts exactly. but, she can be very stubborn and she pretty much dug her heels into the ground about that topic.

What I can't understand is that just a quick google on GSDs and you see dogs that are all about half the size of hers.....


baffles the mind.

[xpaeanx]

beanie that's a cool site!

[Laurelin]

Originally Posted by xpaeanx

beanie that's a cool site!

Lol, you can call me Beanie too if you want. She's pretty cool. She has a sheltie.

[xpaeanx]

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OO sorry about that!

when I hit post I saw your posts, check the sites, and typed my response while looking at the site....

I have NO IDEA, why I did that....

*puts self in corner with "dunce" cap*

[DanL]

Originally Posted by xpaeanx

haha! i didn't think that maybe to her a "mini" is a GSD in standard. That would make sense bc they would be half the size of her dog.

bunny, I'm thinking she ment shiloh about the "old fashioned" bc that's what she claimed her dog is.... and a lot of people think that shiloh's are still breed to resemble old fashioned.

and she did mention roachback and show as two different ones... but she said one at the begining of her list and one at the end.... so maybe they were supposed to be one?



I wonder where she did her "research." She claims she spent a long time learning about all the different "types" of GSD, and then she picked hers. ???????????

There are American show lines and West German showlines. The American dogs tend to be the over angulated, super slope back dogs, while the WG dogs are the "roach backs".

This is the "roach back" look:

[xpaeanx]

aha! I see!

[release the hounds]

They are way oversized in America. I think they've gotten a little big overall in general, and am happy to see size again being a factor in breeding, but here most of our GSD's have a real problem. because they don't have to fit the standard to be bred and registered. There will always be a problem with the "interpretation" of the standard, but in this country most breeders totally disregard it. 130lb male 120lb female??? great put 'em together cause bigger is badder and better and they can still register the pups too.

anyway, "old world"??? this is "old world"



FCI and SV standards have been in a few threads recently and NONE call for a 120 lb female. just over 70lbs for a female is out of standard. at 120 she is a whole other female gsd out of standard, she has enough weight for 2 good sized bitches.

But then you can always lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink, sounds like she's already got her mind made up.

[corgipower]

As for mini shepherds, I used to claim that Piper was a miniature GSD, and some people actually believed it was a real breed. She weighed about 34 pounds.

I also knew of someone who did breed mini GSDs -- I don't recall the entire story, but it seemed he had a gene for dwarfism going on ~ whether it came from GSDs or if there was husky somewhere in the ancestry I don't remember. He specifically bred for it though and claimed them to be a new exotic breed, just right for apartments.

For the OP though, I wouldn't try too hard to understand what she's talking about. It doesn't sound like she knows...I've seen GSDs that get to be 120 pounds. It's way too big and definitely outside any of the standards.

[Domestika]

Someone asked if my pup was a "shadow shepherd" yesterday! I was like "Huh...what the heck is that..."

While I agree with everyone else here that 120 pounds is waaaay out of the standard for GSDs...I don't believe it is inherantly wrong to produce dogs that large IF they are healthy and able to carry out the work the breed was intended to do.

I have said this before, but the breeder my GSD is from tends to have larger dogs. She doesn't advertise the fact, you can just see the dogs are quite large. But they are healthy (well...not my dog, but still...) and very strong and agile. They do police work, search and rescue work, Schutzhund training, etc. They can do everything a 60 pound dog can do...maybe just a wee bit slower.

So maybe your friend meant that she's "the perfect weight" for her size? Not the perfect weight for her breed, but rather for the frame she has? My parents have a 95-ish pound purebred male GSD and he's the perfect weight...for the size he is.